Elderly driver punched

A Lurgan pensioner has been unable to return to the wheel of his car after being punched by a taxi driver in a road rage incident.

The incident happened shortly before 10.45am on Saturday morning at the roundabout at Lake Street and Antrim Road.

Colin Kelly’s son Frank said his 70-year-old father was assaulted after a taxi almost collided with him.

Frank said: “My dad and the taxi driver got into an argument. Their windows were wound down. Then the taxi driver got out and walked round to dad’s car and punched him in the face through the window.

“His face was in some shape. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the blood coming from my father’s nose and the swelling around his face when he arrived home after the incident.

“He got cleaned up and was for going over to hospital the following day, but then he started getting light headed so we took him over to A+E straight away for a scan.”

Frank said his dad was so badly shaken by the incident that he’s been unable to get back behind the wheel.

“My father is a carer for my mother and sister who are both disabled and he would do messages in the car,” said his son.

“He’s now been afraid to drive the car and when he has been driving his legs begin to shake.

“My father hasn’t been too well lately and didn’t need this to happen to him as he buried two sons lately in the space of 15 months. One of my brothers passed away in July and the other in March the year before which had an effect on him. This is the last thing the family needed.

“It makes me mad when the taxi driver is going about in his taxi doing his normal job and working with the public when my father is at home trying to come to terms with this.”

Police are appealing for witnesses to the assault.

Commenting on the incident, Constable Stephen Kirkwood said: “It is understood A 70-year-old man, who was driving his car in the Lake Street area at approximately 10.45am became involved in a verbal altercation with the driver of another vehicle who got out of his car and assaulted him.

“Police later arrested a 41-year-old man, who was released pending a report to the PPS.”

Police appealed to anyone who witnessed this incident or who has any information to call them on 101.